Dec
05

Pranab escapes facing poll trial, SC bench knocks out Sangma plea 3:2

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday escaped an election trial in the Supreme Court as a five-judge Constitution bench dismissed by a 3:2 majority a petition by Purno Sangma seeking quashing of Mukherjee's election to the top constitutional post. While challenging Mukherjee's election on the ground that he was disqualified to contest as he had not resigned from two posts of offices...
Read More..

NYC Subway Pusher Charged With Murder

A New York City man was charged today with murder for shoving another man onto subway tracks where he was struck and killed by an oncoming train.Naeem Davis, 30, was charged after being questioned by police since Tuesday about the death of Ki-Suck Han, 58, of Queens, N.Y.The charges include murder second degree: intentional, as well as murder second degree: depraved indifference.He...
Read More..

Giant Sequoias Grow Faster With Age

Aging giant sequoia trees are growing faster than ever, with some of the oldest and tallest trees producing more wood, on average, in old age than they did when they were younger. (Read about redwoods, another species of giant tree, in National Geographic magazine.)A 2,000-year-old giant sequoia is just cranking out wood, said Steve Sillett, a professor at Humboldt State University in...
Read More..
Dec
04

Golf: McIlroy named US PGA Tour Player of Year

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: Rory McIlroy, whose four US PGA Tour victories in 2012 included a major title at the PGA Championship, was named the US tour's Player of the Year on Tuesday.US tour members vote on the award, which made the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland the youngest player to be named Player of the Year since then 21-year-old Tiger Woods in 1997.McIlroy authored a strong...
Read More..

FDI: Congress woos Mulayam, Maya for Rajya Sabha numbers

NEW DELHI: With the BSP continuing to resist the Congress's persuasion to openly support the decision to allow foreign retail chains into the country, the government on Tuesday furiously cranked up its efforts to dodge a likely defeat in Rajya Sabha. On a day when the SP and the BSP, serial saviours of the government in crunch situations, slammed the FDI decision in the Lok Sabha debate, the government...
Read More..

Oldest Giant Panda Relative Found in Spain

The oldest relative of the giant panda has been discovered in Spain—suggesting that the animals' ancestors originated in Europe, a new study says.Dubbed Kretzoiarctos beatrix, the 11-million-year-old species was previously named Agriarctos beatrix based on a few fossil teeth found at a paleontological site near Zaragoza, Spain (map). Agriarctos is an extinct genus of European bear and...
Read More..
Dec
03

Republicans make 'fiscal cliff' counter-offer

WASHINGTON: Republicans on Monday laid out a proposal for closing the huge US deficit that raises half the income proposed by President Barack Obama and opposes a higher tax rate increase for the rich.Their $2.2 trillion deficit reduction proposal agreed to the permanent extension of tax cuts, a move that would mitigate much of the impact of the looming fiscal cliff.But they did not immediately...
Read More..

Samajwadi Party keeps UPA in suspense over FDI vote

LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party is still playing a guessing game over the vote on FDI in Parliament. Political pundits have not ruled out the possibility of the SP voting against the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), at least in Rajya Sabha, to gain political edge over the Bahujan Samaj Party if it abstains from voting. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will, however, take the final call on his party's...
Read More..

Boehner Makes Fiscal Cliff Counter-Offer

Dec 3, 2012 3:19pm House Speaker John Boehner today sent President Obama a counter-proposal on how to cut the deficit that he called a “credible plan” to break the stalemate in negotiations to keep the country from going off the “fiscal cliff.”In the plan, Republicans offer a total of $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. That would give lawmakers...
Read More..
Dec
02

‘Fiscal cliff’ debate: Who are the key players?

The “fiscal cliff” nears, and judging from the rhetoric coming from congressional Republicans and the White House of late, a deal is not near. (House Speaker John Boehner declared “stalemate” late last week.) Of course, like a procrastinating college student writing an end-of-semester term paper, Congress tends to do its best work with a deadline looming, so veteran Capitol Hill watchers...
Read More..